I am new user of squakbox. I have followed the vatsim step by step turorial verbatum. After connection is established with sb, I'm supposed to select ATC Directory. I do this but all I see is unicom, so I select that. Then I type .atis atc_callsign....but never get the atis. I do see text saying "atis on request".I am using ServInfo to be sure I am connecting to an active server.I have even tried flying my flight,continually updating ATC directory, to see if when aircraft changes positions I might pick-up more ATC...no luck.Also, I downloaded the wazzup program and after I connect I think I should be able to see my aircraft there...but can't.Any ideas, any help is much appreciated. I think I've spent around 10 hrs now trying to sort this out (reading help files etc.) :sThanks for your time-alex

Hi Alex,First off not all parts of the World have active ATC all the time so it may just be that you are flying in an area that currently does not have any active ATC.AFAIK ATIS is not available from UNICOM as that is a 'general' fequency, I may be wrong.You say you have ServInfo. Use that to see where there is ATC.There are wo ways to find out where there is active ATC. You can click on the flag of the Country you are flying in and then select the airport you are at from the drop-down lists. This will list active ATC at that airport or in that area.For example, if flying in the UK click on the Union flag (second from left), that will automatically select the London FIR and you will see a list of what ATC is available.The second way is to start FS and then run Si and then minimise it.If you now right click on the Si icon in your system tray it will show what ATC is within range of your aircraft whether you are on the ground or flying.From that list you can also connect SB and Roger Wilco to one of the ATC positions. The ATc positions shown in that list should also appear in the ATC Directory in SB, if it doen't then you do have a problem.Bear in mind however that the list in Si will be slightly older than the SB ATC Directory because Si is updated less frequently than the SB list.HTH

Thanks for the replie Vulcan,I'll try your suggestions....oh!! but now I have another problem.I inadvertantly changed the roger wilco IP in the SB connection window, and now when I connect I get a error mesage from roger wilco saying "The hostname "unicom" could not be found". I tried deleting and re-installing sb and rogerwilco to no avail.Got any ideas....I really am trying to hang in there with this.Thanks-alex

I guess you didn't fully uninstall RW Alex but don't worry.I am also surpirsed that you cannot change the RW IP in the SB connection window but it is so long since I installed SB and have never had to change anything that I can't be certain that it will or won't change.here's the wrok aorund.Go to C:Windows and find Squawkbox.ini file.In that file you will find a line 'RWIP=xxx' where 'xxx' is the IP address, that entry on my file is just below the 'HOMEBASE=' entry.Delete everything after the '=' sign and then try the SB connection again and input a valid RW server address from ServInfo and all should be OK again.That IP address is only the starting connection for RW because as soon as you select a controller from the ATC list the address in RW will change but the address you input in the SB connect window will always be your starting connection.If you want to change to UNICOM while flying there is no need to change the IP address, you only need change the 'room' and the easiest way to do that is double click on UNICOM from the SB ATC directory.Check in the RW window that the voice connection has actually change, you should see in the 'joined on' text box xxxxUNICOM where 'xxx' is an IP address.If RW has NOT changed over then highlight the IP address bit, copy it, leave the current channel and then click 'join'.In that text box paste the IP address you just copied and then add 'UNICOM' (without the quotes) and you should be on UNICOM frequency for both SB and voice.HTH

Thanks again for the help Vulcan, but the RW problem is still not sorted out.I checked the Squawkbox.ini file, and the line RWIP is already blank after the equal sign....yet i am still getting the error. I don't know what the default for that line should be or were to get it. Like I said I did try removing and re-installing RW. Must be one of those registry things? (which I have no clue about LOL!).Any more ideas?...I'll try whatever you can think of.Maybe if I plug in whatever your RWIP line say's it'll fix it...I donno, just grasping straws.Thanks again,-alex